Beheading device for poultry



April 9, 1957 V. N. ANDERSON El AL BEHEADING DEVICE FOR POULTRY FiledJune 4, 1954 INVENTORS.

080/72 5. NELSO/V,

1/5 NE A. n/voseso A TTaeA/Eva United States Patent BEHEADING DEVICE FORPOULTRY Verne N. Anderson, Garden City, and Oscar E. Nelson, Garfield,Kans.

Application June 4, 1954, Serial No. 434,492

2 Claims. (Cl. 17-12) This invention relates to a beheading device, asfor poultry, or to accomplish any positive shearing action on anextremity while the body of the object acted upon is positioned withinthe object surrounding structure of the invention, as a funnel.

It is a primary object of this invention to provide such a beheadingdevice constructed to be mounted for the greatest ease of operationwhich has been found to be in position with the axis of the funnel at asubstantial angle to the horizontal and with the shearing means actingin substantially a vertical plane.

It is also an object of this invention to provide a beheading device ofthis class which is of sturdy construction, easily assembled andmounted, and easily and positively operated.

Other and further objects will be apparent when the hereinbelowdescription is considered in connection with the drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a front elevation of a form of the invention;

Figure 2 is a side elevation of the form of invention shown in Figure 1with parts thereof broken away;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary front elevation with portions thereof brokenaway and showing the beheading means in operation; and

Figure 4 is an enlarged sectional elevation taken along line 44 ofFigure 1.

Referring to these drawings in detail, the device has as support a frameor mounting structure 11 including as main elements a vertical strap orupright 12, a horizontal cross piece 13 to which the upright 12 may beconnected, as by the rivets 14. An angularly upwardly extending strap 15is connected at one end to the cross piece 13 adjacent one end thereof,as by the rivet 16. A funnel 17, in the shape of a modifiedfrustro-cone, is connected to the frame 11 by means of a tie member 18secured at one end at 19 to the funnel and connected at its other bymeans 20 to the frame so that the funnel extends angularly upwardly fromthe frame. Such connection may be a rivet extending through the tiemember 18, the strap 15, a spacer 21, and another strap 22 which extendsdownwardly at an angle from such connection to the cross piece 13 towhich it is connected by rivets 23 at the cross piece end opposite theend to which the strap 15 is connected. Thus the strap 22 completes atriangular strength structure as a frame element.

Knife blades 24, 24 of conventional saw tooth shape, are connected byrivets 25, 25 to the cross piece 13 in side by side abutment to leave aV-shaped opening 26 between the angularly extending knife edges 27,which are sharpened to keen edges, and such blades 24, 24 are preferablytempered. The rivets 25 also efiect the connection of one end of lowertie members 28 to the frame 11, while the other end is connected at 29to the funnel 17.

A bolt 30 pivotally connects a bar 31 to the strap 15 and cross piece13. Knife and handle support bar 32 is connected by rivets 33 to the bar31, and the upper edge of a shearing knife 34 abuts the bar 32 and iscon- 2,787,03 Fatented Apr. 9, 1357 nected to the bar 31 by rivets 35.This shearing knife 34 may preferably be tempered and has along itslower side a finely sharpened shearing or cutting edge 36. A handle 37is provided on the bar 32, and when the handle is pulled downwardly theshearing edge 36 moves within easy cutting clearance of the knife edges27. This effectiveness is observable by consideration of the assembly ofthe shearing knife 34 to the bar 31 and on the same side thereof as thecross piece 13 to which the bar 32 is pivotally connected, while theknife blades 24, 24 are connected to the cross piece 13 on the oppositeside from the bar 31. In obtaining this effectiveness with suchassembly, consideration also is given to the relative thickness of thecross piece 13 and shearing knife 34.

For best operation the strap or upright 12 is connected, by anyconventional securing means, not shown, to a support 42, indicated indotted lines in Figure 2. Such support can be any upright element, as apost, to which working access may be had. The object to be beheaded, asa fowl, is inserted head downward into the funnel which has been somounted by means of the connections 18 and 28 that the decapitated facesurface 40 of the funnel extends in a plane substantially parallel tothe plane of operation of the shearing knife 34-, which plane ispreferably a vertical plane. The weight and force of the insertion of afowl in a downward direction, and the size of the opening in the lowerend of the funnel, should insure that the head and neck of the fowlshould extend through the V-shaped opening between the knife blades 24,24, and outwardly thereof. It is then only necessary to move the handle37 downwardly, as it is retained in its plane of operation by the guidebar 22, and

the shearing knife edge 36 is moved across the knife edges 27 to effectneat and sure beheading of the fowl.

The dimensions of the funnel may be such that the body of the fowl maynot jump out during death reflexes and assurance against this may be hadif the operator holds a cover over the upper end of the funnel 17.Optionally the operator may choose to rapidly discard beheaded fowl insuccession, as when a number are to be beheaded, as in poultry houses,so that their dying reflexes may occur outside of the funnel.

The operation of this invention has been described with relation to thebeheading of fowls, but it is obvious that such device has utility forother purposes as well, and claim is made to its application for thedecapitation or severance of any terminal portion or extremity of anyobject of larger size than such extremity which may be inserted throughthe upper end of the funnel.

Although one construction of the invention has been shown in thedrawings and described in detail and mode of operation, this inventionis not limited to such construction, and includes other variations andmodification as well which may come within the spirit of the inventionand the merited broad interpretation asserted for the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A beheading device comprising a support frame including a cross pieceand straps carried by said cross piece adjacent each end of the crosspiece and extending outwardly therefrom in convergent relation to definea triangular opening in said frame, a pair of fixed knife blades carriedby said cross piece and having their knife edges disposed in divergentrelation in said opening and receiving therebetween the object to bebeheaded as they retreat from said cross piece, a truncated cone-shapedfunnel carried by said frame and extending angularly outwardly therefromto one side thereof with the smaller outlet end thereof spaced from theadjacent side of said frame and opening to said triangular opening, aknife bar mounted on said cross piece adjacent one end thereof formovement in an arcuate path across said opening and said fixed blades, ashearing knife mounted on said bar upon movement therewith and extendingacross said fixed blades, and manual lyoperated means operativelyconnected to said knife bar for moving it in its arcuate path and theshearing knife across said fixed blades to bridge the space therebetweenand cooperate with the fixed blades to shear the head of a fowl placedin said funnel so that the head extends through the smaller end of thefunnel and through the space between said divergent fixed knife bladeedges, said straps being secured to said cross piece on opposite sidesthereof to define a space therebetween, said knife bar movable in itsarcuate path in the space between said straps with the straps definingguides for the knife bar as it moves in its arcuate path, and theconvergent ends of saidstraps defining a stop to limit the movement ofsaid knife bar in a direction away from said fixed knife blades.

2. A beheading device comprising a support frame including a cross pieceand straps carried by said cross piece adjacent each end of the crosspiece and extending outwardly therefrom in convergent relation to definea triangular opening in said frame, a pair of fixed knife blades carriedby said cross piece and having their knife edges disposed in divergentrelation in said opening and receiving therebetween the object to bebeheaded as they retreat from said cross piece, a truncated cone-shapedfunnel carried by said frame and extending angularly outwardly therefromto one side thereof with the smaller outlet end thereof spaced from theadjacent side of said frame and opening to said triangular opening, aknife bar mounted on said cross piece adjacent one end thereof formovement in an arcuate path across said opening and said fixed blades, ashearing knife mounted on said bar upon movement therewith and extendingacross said fixed blades, and manually operated means operativelyconnected to said knife bar for moving it in its arcuate path and theshearing knife across said fixed blades to bridge the space therebetweenand cooperate with the fixed blades to shear the head of a fowl placedin said funnel so that the head extends through the smaller endof thefunnel and through the space between said divergent fixed knife bladeedges, said straps being fixedly secured to said cross piece on oppositesides thereof, said manually operable means including a handle supportbar connected to said knife bar and disposed between said straps andextending thereacross with said straps defining guides for said supportbar as the bar is moved so as to impart movement to said knife bar inits arcuate path.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,410,640 Baker Mar. 28, 1922 2,417,890 Staufenbiel Mar. 25, 1947FOREIGN PATENTS 164,047 Germany Oct. 21, 1905 216,287 Germany Nov. 16,1909 130,605 Austria Dec, 10, 1932

